Those may not be bad things, but the images are an issue for the storied girls preparatory school on Bidwell Parkway, which is seeking to enter the world of advanced fundraising and broader recruitment to keep pace with the new realities of private school education, especially in Buffalo.

Buff Sem has no religious affiliation, but it has a long reputation in Buffalo circles, which means the name isn't going anywhere. It's a branding problem not easily rectified.

School officials are doing their best, with the board appointing a branding committee and hiring a private consultant. A previous effort, which turned out "There's no place like Sem," was overly vague, Head of School Jody Douglass said.

Douglass said there are no results of the rebranding campaign yet. Whatever happens needs to conjure the school's traditional strength and also its path forward, embracing technology in the classroom and students from the Southern Tier, Upstate and even Asia.

"We want to be true to our roots — historical and traditional — but also something much more," she said.

The school has developed five dorm houses, which it hopes will eventually house 40 boarders. It's goal is 160 day students, meaning it wants 200 girls in total. That's up from about 175 right now.

But Buff Sem isn't cheap and the pool of high school graduates in the state and Buffalo is expected to dwindle even further until at least 2020. That means it must make like other private secondary schools — and nearly all of the colleges — in Western New York. It must find new pools of students and it must raise funds to help offset their tuition.

Douglass said the future is bright for the school and said it can sell its unique experience, which is intimate and, of course, free of boys. The stately building near Elmwood Avenue is in good shape, and there are no sprawling grounds to maintain.

"Your reputation will be built upon what you're delivering," she said. "The school has an academic and social honor code. It requires basic respect and decency and our girls take it seriously."